Legal Commentary

'Beatrice 6' Exonerated

By TChris

Joseph White, found guilty of participating in the rape-murder of 68-year-old Helen Wilson in Beatrice, Nebraska in 1985, was awarded a new trial in October after new DNA testing failed to connect White to the crime scene, while pointing to the likely involvement of Bruce Smith from Oklahoma City. Prosecutors have since dismissed the charges against White.

In the wake of that decision, five defendants who pled guilty to the same crime (presumably to avoid the death penalty) will receive pardons. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning told the State Board of Pardons that the "Beatrice 6" are "100 percent innocent." [more ...]

Bruning's insistence that "ultimately the truth will be found, that justice will be served" underlies his continuing support for the death penalty. Really? What if there had been no DNA? Does Bruning seriously believe that every wrongful conviction is discovered and righted? There's about as much evidence to support that belief as there is for the notion that wrongful convictions never occur. It's a bit late in the day to have blind faith in the ability of the criminal justice system to get it right, even belatedly.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 29, 2009 (boomark / email).